Mecha d20 game abotu to start and I have players who aren't listening.

DamienHollow

Okay, i have a Mecha D20 game about to start and i have tried my best to encourage Suits and Giant Robots as they are what this setting encourages. I allowed aircraft on the grounds that Helicopters would be highly effective but also challenged by low flying enemies. Player one is building a Jet Fighter even though I've made it clear that the air travel is all but non-existent due to "Sprites" which just slaughter anything that fly's over 5,000 feet. They wont see these till lv 5 but by lv 10 he won't manage to stay in the air ten minutes. On top of that he's not going to have many places to land. Part of the campaign involves figuring out where these came from an taking out the sprite "nest". Player two is building the mech from Zone of The Enders complete with two turn lock down to fire off his big gun. He knows he'll be swarmed by small size "Saboteurs" who like to disassemble machines and there's nothing he can do being Gargantuan (like a swarm of ants.) They know the system was built for Suits, Ground Vehicles, and that the "big stuff" needs support. I pray to god we get a competent player before i have the entire party yelling at me for things i explicitly warned them about. The whole point of the story was the need for ground troops to do what jet's and lone artillery can't.Any suggestions?

DamienHollow

If I ban the jet, he'll try and break the game. That's his style. He's got a flipping god complex and it's nearly broken up our group before. If he can't get his way he tries to ruin everything. Last campaign i ran (D&D 4th) he hogged the show from day one (gross abuse of magic i didn't even know was possible in the "balanced" 4th edition) till i just killed the game. Everyone complained so he plaid the next campaign as an idiot who lived for nothing more than to fill his own vices and did everything in his power to destroy any strategy or tactics we devised, especially mine (this was too easy as i was playing a thief, i finally started playing solo sessions and having as little interaction during our weekly game as possible.) I've seen this all before. It always ends badly. I will try and talk this over with him if i can get him to listen. Otherwise I'm just killing this campaign and going back to Shadowrun because i am not running that train wreck... also, it would be three scales and i only have two maps.

Also as GM you have all the power, let him play the jet and kill him week one. Rinse and repeat until he gets the picture?

That is not a good plan, because it will fail to solve the problem and in fact create new ones - and since others will pick up on this "targeting" of the offending player, it will make fixing the problem more difficult and tumultuous, not less.

You should ban the guy if his god complex is getting in the way of everyone else's fun. By trying to work around him, you're only propagating the problem.

Personally, I like to think of that as the option of last resort (with "just live with it" not being considered an option). For nearly all groups, it's best to at least try to work things out first - gives you a shot at a better resolution, and failing that you can at least say you gave the guy a chance.

Frankly, I would very much go with the:You specifically warned him. Make him have to deal with the issues he is inviting on his character. What about the rest ofyour group? I mean, frankly, you DO need a heavy Artillery Mecha. Also, consider that if this is a military Mecha game,the Commanders can always keep refusing to give him clearance to take the very expensive and rare fighter up.

Its a heartbreaking moment for any GM when you realize that your players just aren't up to the task of your brilliant and original world. There's nothing for it. You either make your game fit your players, or find other players.

The guy with the jet seems like a dick though. If the rest of the group feels the same way, warn him, give him one more chance, and then kick him to the curb. A player like that does nothing but bring a game down. Let him find a game that appreciates that style. Like League of Legends.

Logged

DamienHollow

He actually left League of Legends because he ran out of things to do. He also got fed up with the newer champions. Seriously, have they made anything that wasn't broken since before Jayce? Anyways, when i changed the campaign, he started trying to break the game at character creation every way he could think of. When I started pointing out that the Invincible troll, the undetectable rouge, and half a dozen other broken builds can't be done in SR4 he slinked off and still throws ideas at me on occasion. I enjoy knowing a system better then him for once

Actually, the Invincible Troll is possible, but it isn't likely to be useful for anything but a "damage sponge". Max out Body and take the most armor for that Body and you're pretty well invincible (unless you roll crap-tastic).